Water use not free

The announcement of summer water bans will cause many of us to grumble, especially given the mountains of snow we shoveled over the winter. With all that wetness, how could there be a need to conserve?

Unless we install barrels to capture rainwater from our gutters or haul water ourselves from the ponds and rivers where snow-melt accumulates, high levels or snow and rain are not really the issue. We live in a country with reliably safe, easily accessible water, but the success of that system – and the invisibility of it – have made it easy to forget its costs and even its existence.

When we think about water use (and water bills) we should think about pipes, pumps and treatment plants. When water is taken from a reservoir and pumped to our homes and businesses, how much does it cost to power those pumps? When water is treated before use to make it safe to drink, what does the treatment cost? When the water comes to us through old, corroding, leaking pipes that public resistance and budget cuts keep us from upgrading (who wants the hassle of dug-up streets?), how much pumped and treated water leaks right back into the ground?

When in summer we increase usage as we turn on sprinklers and wash cars with this single source of water, all of which has been made pure enough to drink, how much additional chemical treatment are we drawing on and paying for? When we’re done with our water – the normal use, and the additional lawnwatering, car-washing, hose-playing summer use – how much does it take to pipe that water away from us, then to treat it a second time in a wastewater treatment plant?

Yes, the more water our town uses, the more it costs our town. Yes, those homes and businesses that use more should pay their proportional share. Perhaps water policy, from the price we pay, to our maintenance of infrastructure, to our willingness to limit water use, would receive more public support if we remembered this simple fact: water itself may seem abundant in our region, but we don’t have to pump, pipe or treat what we don’t use. To have safe, drinkable water at the turn of a knob may be a taken-for-granted part of our lives, but it is not free.